When Creepy Ancient Fossils Become Awesome Robots

The fun, funky music and jaunty walk of the Halluc IIx hides a biomimcry secret: the cute little robot is named after one of the weirdest animals to ever walk the Earth. Or crawl. Or scoot. Or ... something.

The 14 legged spiny worm known as Hallucigenia sparsa, an animal that lived around 530 million years ago. It lived on the bottom of the ocean on legs more like tentacles than crab legs. The spines were initially thought to be its main form of locomotion until a 1992 fossil find set the record straight. The area now believed to be the head (which was once thought to be a tail) had a series of tiny tentacles that may have aided it in ... something.

The Halluc IIxis a concept bot for a concept car to test out differing modes of locomotion for futuristic vehicles. Intended as an all-terrain vehicle, it could be utilized in bots for search and rescue efforts, or possibly used as some kind of space probe. Or it can just be our way of honoring one the weirdest creatures on the tree of life.

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